58. That just plain sucks. We have been losing way too many great people well before their time.

I will say that Chris was an asset to the space modeling community, produced a great product and found some interesting niches in both real space, sci-fi and military memorabilia. He was always fun to chat with on the phone about almost anything.

Damn.

.

GACspaceguy

I agree with divemaster..

Apollo14LMP

I have most of the models of the Apollo Astronauts, LRV included, that Chris made.

I had spoken too him several times, this news is very sad indeed...

.

SpaceCadet83

Thanks for the information, Brian. What a shame. Chris' work was truly out of this world! His passing will leave a big void in the space modeling community.

divemaster

quote:Originally posted by Apollo14LMP:I have most of the models of the Apollo Astronauts, LRV included, that Chris made.

His LRV was the true masterpiece. I received one of the first ones. I remember calling him and saying something like "Chris! There are a zillion itty bitty pieces!" And we just laughed like hell. And then we'd get onto our normal chat about the best scuba diving sites in the world.

I still can't believe that he's gone. This a really a shock. And I'll admit that I'm embarrassed that I didn't know about it.

I remember having so much fun building the McCandless MMU model when it first came out. So simple, but so much fun to build.

Jay Chladek

Don't be embarrased DM. I knew of his death, but it was so sudden that I forgot about it as other things took up my thoughts in recent weeks. I had never met Chris, but I have seen some of his figures in person and I regret never getting any as he was one of those guys who just captured the "look" of a space model or a figure perfectly. It was always something I believed I could purchase later when the time was right. Too bad later will never come now.

His death was a really big shock that sent ripples through both the sci fi and space modeling communities and probably the suddeness of it means for a few of us, it still has never quite fully sunk in. Plus, when one logs onto the web and sees mention in a webpage or an article about his stuff, it is almost like he is never really gone. It is sort of like seeing a ghost of what was. So unless one sees an obituary in a paper, you don't quite believe it yourself.

WAWalsh

Having not seen any of the EVA models, would someone please post a few photos. Craftsmanship should be appreciated.

divemaster

Back in the infancy of collectSPACE, I wrote an article about space modeling and, if memory serves, included a couple of photos of a few that I built. I was particularly proud of the one of Gene Cernan [which Gene signed on his first book signing stop when he published "The Last Man on the Moon"].

I'm trying to think - I did McCandless with the MMU, Shepard's golf shot, Cernan saluting the flag [signed], Mitchell with the flag [signed], Schmitt finding the orange soil [signed], Charlie Duke with a boulder, the LRV and probably another two or three that I can't think of. The trick was in the super detailing. Chris would give you a great place to start - then you added on more detail with hoses, cables, etc. And, all things considered, his stuff was very affordable albeit very unforgiving at times - as is the case with most resin models.

Now that I think about it, I made one for Jack Schmitt for which I received a very nice thank you note when he was teaching in Madison, WI and was lecturing at RPI in upstate NY one weekend. 1997?

But Chris' real skill came out in the Sci-Fi Alien's storm troopers models. That was really his big passion.

history in miniature

Does anyone have the instructions to the EVA Lunar Rover that they could copy and e-mail me? It would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

E-mail is: roseanddon.stephen@gmail.com

history in miniature

Thank you, I received a response from Tom.

Apollo14LMP

It was sad to hear of the passing of Chris Chulamanis. Does anyone know if the figurines or LRV kits can still bought anywhere?

apolloprojeckt

I think now there is one on eBay, an astronaut with MMU... here will be offered at substantially.

apolloprojeckt

Who was the fastest again? That is a lucky person...

backof

I ran it up pretty high but reached my limit and bowed out. Too many other things to buy right now.

divemaster

Not bad for a $15 model. The MMU was Chris' first and most simple resin astronaut figure. His later work was much more detailed.

My favorite was the dual model of Cernan and Schmitt - which I had signed by both of them. They loved the little figures and were very impressed with the attention to detail.